But the important thing is to create the right impression in the public mind. As long as everyone feels that climate change is being dealt with, political pressure to do more will abate. Remember that, in democracy, the sheeple rule. Weight of numbers.
Minster Shaw has done a fairly average job in his two terms – in the same league as Stuart Nash for portfolio performance.
But there's a chance he'll return out of COP 26 with political upside.
There's also a chance he will get some redemption in May 2022 Budget with his whole-of-government plan and budget implications.
If he can continue to keep National on side through the Carbon Plan rollout as he has through the legislation, he will have embedded his plan for future Parliaments.
That makes for a tough first half of 2022 for him, but there's all to play for.
I am not a fan of the current set up of the green party, i find all of them without expection to be overhyped at best, useless at worst. So yeah, they will try and milk it for what its worth, being a MP beats working in real live – see covid – and the pay is much better too.
As i said, MPs, money for nothing perks for life, go elect us, what else would we be good for. 2023.
Don't trees absorb Carbon? Carbon from fossil fuel burning. We are constantly told that trees do exactly that, and people need to stop felling trees. Why is planting trees a farce?
because we cut them faster then we can plant them or they can grow into something large enough to be cut again.
Unless we leave these trees in the ground for the next say 300 years to actually become old forests you are playing nothing more then a losing game of catch up.
But hey, he got to go to Scotland during a pandemic, and now he can pretend to bring home some solutions – like we haven't known that we should be planting trees since the late 70's early 80's when trees died of acid rain.
But then, they birth one of them every year, and they grow into adults and really believe that know one knew until they came along and told us so.
Planting trees, a farce? Replanting the lost forests and woodlands of the planet is the most important action we can take to ensure our survival. The benefits of tree-planting extend far beyond the simple carbon issue you’re describing. In fact, I'd call those benefits immeasurable.
You are correct of course, planting trees does extend beyond the simple carbon issue.
However, pretending that it will do much or even save something (us) is a farce, considering that we cut our forrests far quicker then we ever plant them. Heck, go to suburbia, and count the trees. Guess what, they are the first thing to go in order to make way for carports and concreted over places for the 6 cars of the 6 adults living in a three bedroom house.
So yeah, he is quite right, it is a farce to make believe that we are actually doing something. But we don't.
But in saying that, i will plant some more trees, to make up for the 8 trees that were cut down on the property on the other side of the fence to make way for ……cars!!!, never mind the birds that have been made homeless. But lets blame cats for that.
I may be wrong, but unless those trees are burnt for fuel, the carbon remains within the timber surely ?.Yes, they are no longer taking carbon from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis,but the actual carbon they've gathered is not lost . The felled trees then need to be replaced with seedlings which will uptake carbon at a faster rate than mature trees (still uptaking carbon at a lower rate, but overall at a still significant rate )
More trees, forests in perpetuity, longer rotations , higher value for forestry plantations, more of the continuous canopy forestry model
Thats a bit of an issue with what society pays an income for. But there is a huge real payoff to certain reforestation projects which we don't get from the timber industry (though I suspect timber is better than farming for carbon sequestration, as its usually replanted).
Felled trees in a forestry situation tend to be milled into timber.I sure hope that wooden framing and cladding doesn't start decomposing straight away
Decomposing wood ( from naturally fallen trees) becomes part part of the current carbon cycle , carbon released to the atmosphere taken up again by those hopefully replanted forests .This carbon is separate from that released by burning fossil fuels. It's essential for the integrity of the carbon cycle that felled trees are immediately replaced by new plantings.
Dead right Tricledrown. But it would be more to our credit to rapidly phase out exotic pines from NZ totally. Indigenous forests only – short term pain but long term – total sense.
Pine whist in the short term does buy us time in consuming CO2. But at what cost to the long term uniqueness to NZ. And will that not and have created other problems, as they spread beyond the man made forrests ? "Wilding conifers are invasive weeds that threaten to permanently alter the unique landscapes that are only found in New Zealand."
Perhaps we need deeper thinkers to the solution and not take the easiest option
I said thinking planting trees to offset fossil fuel us is a farce ,dir to the fact that anywhere that a tree gets planted was most likely home to a tree we (royal we)cut down in the past, so at best we are only capturing the carbon lost from that action
Carbon gets released when the trees cut down? Dont think so.
It entirely depends on the next steps for the cut trees (and the land they are grown on)… do they rot back into the soil, are they burnt, used for building materials, or making furniture? Unless burnt, the carbon eventually ends up back in the soil and sequestered, as long as the soil is looked after.
And that is the key, protect the soil, and we sequester carbon. Traditional monoculture tree growing and clearfelling techniques are not good because of the damage to the soil during growing and after harvest.
Carbon is carbon, it doesn't care where it comes from (fossil fuels or whatever)
If you increase carbon in standing biomass (by planting trees in places that are currently not forest), this will absorb carbon from the atmosphere for as long as the increased biomass remains.
Yeahbut we could plant the whole planet and it would not offset 1 bit of carbon released since Og accidentally burnt the cave down when his shiny new hearth stones turned out to be the until then unknown coal.
But people just wrap themselves up in the feel good cloak of planting a few trees and charging along as normal.
Until scientists come up with a viable carbon capture you going to be a slowly roasted prawn my friend
If you take a hillside currently in pasture, and you reforest it, that area of land is sequestering carbon until it reaches a climax forest state. At the point, leave it the fuck alone (ie don't treat it like a grab bag of resources), because as Robert points out, there are multiple benefits to a forest. Maybe it's a wild forest, maybe it's a food forest, maybe it can be selectively logged, maybe it's part of a grazing system. But leave it there.
NZ has a very large amount of land that we could do this with. Here's the rub: you can't use it as a swap for releasing GHGs. We would have to use it as a carbon sink and reduce GHG emissions at the same time.
We also know that regenerative agriculture both reduces emissions and sequesters carbon, if done well it's a net sink. Think about all the pasture on the planet that is currently being ploughed every year (releasing carbon) and what would happen if we stopped ploughing (far less carbon release) and managed the land regeneratively (carbon stored permanently as the soil rebuilds).
Again, do that and reduce GHGs emissions at the same time, don't use it as a trade off to burn fossil fuels or do industrial dairying.
If we had any bloody sense we would be giving our R and D sector (private and government) shit loads of funding because those techs already exist. But hey, people want to believe in the fantasy of high tech CCS that doesn't even exist yet instead of what is already in our backyards. That's the problem we face right now.
As that grassy hill was once forest, when you plant it you are just recapturing the carbon released when it was cleared, (that doesn't make it a bad thing to do .)
What I'm saying is this fucking delusion that many ,including this government and Mr Shaw, think that planting trees here or in brazil will offset carbon being released now. It won't .
We have been releasing carbon since we made our first adze and mastered fire through deforestation so any planting can only recapture that carbon ,
What humans and nature did prior to the Industrial Revolution was largely manageable for the planet within the natural carbon cycle. There are some notable exceptions, but it wasn’t significantly from human activities.
There are regenag people who make the claim that regenag can sequester all the carbon released by humans since the IR. Whether that's overstating and by how much I don't know, but it is true that regenag can sequester more carbon than is commonly thought. eg Joel Salatin says over something like five decades he's rebuilt inches of topsoil on his farm. Mainstream scientists say it takes millennia to do that (I'm being rough with my figures here, don't have them in my head).
For your theory to be true, the amount of carbon released when the paddock deforested would have to be the same or more than the carbon captured when the forest is replanted. The account would also need to take into account the growing deficit over the decades since then globally.
But ultimately this is reductionist thinking. From a whole systems point of view, we have to reforest, restore native ecosystems, and convert pasture and cropping to regenag, because those are the things that put us back in the natural carbon cycle. We also have to stop polluting the atmosphere further. Whether all of that is enough, I doubt that anyone knows, but it's still the right thing to do because the only way that life on earth, including our own, will survive is if we become part of those natural cycles again.
And yes, NZ's climate commitment of buying credits from other countries so we can still have industrial export dairying is insane. But guess who voted for this? It wasn't James Shaw.
Salatin explained that the farm his family has been on since the 1960s was inexpensive to purchase because it was poor quality land due to years of adverse soil practices. To illustrate that, he told how there wasn't even enough topsoil to anchor posts from which to string electric fencing wire.
But years of focus on soil health has added 12 inches of soil with a high percentage of organic material, he said.
Someone else can look up the amount of carbon lost on that land when it was originally degraded, because I find the focus on linear maths a cul de sac without the whole systems view.
Lynn has things to say about why he thinks the maths are wrong on sequestration (to do with long geological time frames) but I’ve not understood his points well.
"What humans and nature did prior to the Industrial Revolution was largely manageable.." IMO the dramatic increase of the world pop., increase in life expectancy + improvements in standard of living appears to align with the graph on "global primary energy by source". Never come across this site before, has some interesting information/data.
Yes I was taken back by this – Such info should be widely circulated as to the immense size of the issue. Unfortunately it is very deflating, and if any in Glasgow are honest there is IMO a massive trade off that we have to face. Screw the planet and suffer the consequences the .005% will be ok. or allow humans to manage the issue and face massive issues pop. reduction and reduced living stds and hope that the consequences are less severe.
I personally believe (and it is a belief) that we still have time to do this in an ok way. I don't fear the Powerdown because I've lived most of my adult life with the benefits of that kind of living and I know many others that are the same. I get the good aspects of that in my bones.
I also rate regenag highly for its ability to both produce food/materials and restore ecological sanity. NZ can probably produce food for other places in the world regeneratively, and large land masses like the US can too. We've seen that urban farming is successful, and that humans can work together.
The biggest issue is we just don't have the stories of how to do this in the mainstream and many people are addicted to high consumption lifestyles and just can't imagine being ok without them.
In September 2019 prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand history would be taught in all schools from 2022.
It felt like a momentous decision given abundant evidence that most students left school having had little or no exposure to the history of their own country. Generations of New Zealanders had grown up without even a basic awareness of pivotal moments in the nation’s past, unable to understand how events like the nineteenth-century New Zealand Wars and subsequent land confiscations resonated today in myriad ways, including in the often dire socio-economic statistics of Māori communities around the country.
Aotearoans have been performing their long march out of colonialism for many decades. Perhaps this sees them entering the home straight?
In 1992 Arlana Delamere was in her final year of secondary school at Green Bay High School in Auckland. Students opting to take history as part of the seventh form (now year 13) syllabus were offered two choices: Tudor and Stuart England or 19th-century New Zealand. Except in many cases the decision had already been made for them by their schools, which offered a choice of English history or nothing.
Arlana’s father, and future Cabinet minister, Tuariki John Delamere, was working in Wellington as a negotiations manager at the Treaty of Waitangi Policy Unit when he received a phone call from his upset daughter. “She was in her last year of high school in Auckland. And she wants to study New Zealand history and found out she couldn’t, she could only study British history, and she was pretty incensed about it. She thought this is bullshit.”
It's related to why Auckland cops call their HQ Bullshit Castle. Obviously the police hierarchy are required to administer neo-colonialist procedures, so the ranks are just calling a spade a spade. And you can't blame teachers for teaching what was required in the 19th century during the 21st century. The inertial effect of bureaucracy rolls on forever. Until the PM threw the binary switch on them!
So now we'll get pakeha teachers trying to teach our history from a Maori perspective as well as from a settler perspective. That'll be fun! Will they wheel in a token Maori instead? Treaty zealots will point out that each school ought to have a Maori teacher on staff to provide historical balance – but you can expect the Education Dept bureaucrats to die in the ditches trying to prevent such progress from happening…
Also personally looking forward to Matariki next year.
I suspect it's going to be a day of national relief. One to say thanks to each other.
Never ceases to amaze me how well New Zealand has held together despite all the potential for ethnic division that could have been caused over the last two years.
German teachers are teaching German history from the perspective of the victims. It can actually be done, without issues and without guilting the kids for the sins of their forfathers. We call it 'denazification', 'umerziehumg' – to turn education over. Surely this too can be done here, unless you are saying that Pakeha teacers – which is every one bar Maori, are unable to do so. And frankly that would be a very sad statement from you on behalf of teachers.
The irony in those comments by DF, RL whoever is they're from a coloniser POV, yet they don't see that. "Why can't we all just be one people". It'll get better.
I am worried about one thing, namely that hte education runs down to 'all whites are racists'.
I was ashamed as an eleven year old – Sister Rosa did a good job, it helped that she was alive during the time a student in Munich. The White Rose ment something to her physically, emotionally and intellectually. Maybe that was the difference. But i went on to try to find 'good germans'. It makes for funny adults later in life.
Dachau is a place 60 kms from where i live, let me tell you something, Everyone knew what was going on, everyone was aware of whom was killed there, and everyone was scared shitless that they too could have ended up in the ovens. that is something that i understood much later in life.
So i really really hope that the MOE drives a fine line of education of the past as written by those that were killed, removed from their lands, raped and hanged, but still understands and teaches that they white kids of today – are not the perpetrator, heck some may not even be 'Kiwis' but first generations immigrants.
A fine line indeed. And frankly i am not sure our calibre of government stooges is actually able to create that curriculum.
It is a great idea but I remember the seventies debacle on trying to have a maori teacher of Maori in all secondary schools. What a ballsup.
Also what about all the Conservative Private schools? Can you imagine them avidly teaching the errors of colonialism and settler attitudes (still prevalent now).
I thought that was pretty dumb as well. But it happens I learned history at school from an Austrian (also the German teacher). While we were covering the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I brought the idea that Nagasaki was bombed in the knowledge that Japan was ready to surrender, to class. Now either that wasn't in the curriculum or you had to be Japanese to teach it like that (and no, I didn't get that idea from anybody who is Japanese).
I was taught the History of the British Empire and Commonwealth by a Tanzanian Gujarati history teacher in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) as a kid – absolutely riveting version!
That was US American History and Austria was also occupied by the US. I guess there is so much more to the nuclear bombings of Japan that hte US would not want taught. Even in Germany you will be hard pressed to find much history teaching of US modern history that reflects the voices of Native and African American and Mexican voices.
Sister Rosa walked us through these bombings and we left this particular scene of slaughter with the knowledge that no one can claim moral superiority and do such an act, not to win, but to enforce total submission.
As i said, it can be done. But it actually takes courage.
a curious thing i noticed with this development – a concentration on 19th century wars only.
aotearoa's history is fascinating, with a lot more to discover yet
but it needs to go way back to the currently understood beginning and, if it is going to include conflict, include all conflicts, pre-euro as well. The arrivals of the polynesians is fascinating, as is their rapid spread around the islands, their societal changes a couple centuries after arrival, on it goes …
i fear the curriculum will be selective though and not comprehensive, with less appealing components left out, as is always the case
Cool, thanks I'll check it out. Have been devouring anything and everything on NZ history the last couple years, plus anything and everything anthropological… early manwoman walking out of africa, the numerous hominid species and their interactions, the constant colonisation and recolonisation of lands since forever, how late they lived (very recently and the source of our 'myths' around fairies, mountain people, bigfoot, etc the world over I think). The entire area is on a very steep upwards trajectory of increasing knowledge..
As a teacher of Year 7&8s, with degree in History and a wide reading of New Zealand history, I'm fucking incensed at your patronising bullshit, Dennis.
Yes, I'm male, yes I'm Pakeha, yes I'm old, but none of that invalidates my ability to lead students through the history of their own country. We will cover as much pre colonial as we can. Early contacts, Te Tiriti, The New Zealand wars, the ongoing affects of colonisation, the role of women, and plenty more.
Okay, you're an exception to the rule, good for you. I'm reflecting my experience of the education system, from a prior generation. Would be good if today's teachers were more like you! We lack any evidence to assume they are.
Maybe you should put that disclaimer up first, or last what ever, before essentially proclaiming that you don't think todays teachers don't pass the muster.
Sometimes one must be provocative to flush out the truth of things. Emotional reactions from those who see things differently are understandable. However we haven't had the kind of mass signalling from the establishment that would persuade us that a substantial shift has occurred. Until someone fronts with evidence on the points I made, I'll probably have to keep making those points.
I just reread what I wrote and can't see any evidence to validate your claim. I'm not responsible for any guilt trip that teachers impose upon themselves.
Well that's good to know. I sure as hell didn't, in Taranaki in the '50s – nor at Intermediate, here in New Plymouth. Nor at college in Wanganui.
And my dad's father, who told me his grandfather had lived in Parihaka, failed to fill in any details of that. Being a kid when he mentioned it, I never thought it might be worth asking. If it were not for the `seen but not heard' ethos in regard to children, I may have expressed curiosity. He never even said his grandad was a soldier at the time – maybe wasn't told.
That is you. Many of my contempories had enterly different experiences.
And, When I was Teaching, I met burnt out Teachers, frustrated Teachers, mediocre Teachers, superb Teachers and everything in between. But very few that didn't care deeply about the job, and the kids they were Teaching.
The “time servers” were rare, and tended to roost in private or high decile schools where they could go home at 1500.
Several of my older Pakeha relatives, gone now of course, taught in "Native Schools" in Maori and English. Looking back, they helped inform that generation of Maori activism. Being almost all "old soldiers" and or trade Unionists, and sceptical of "English Imperialism".
I found history fascinating at high school (Christchurch), and the teachers enthusiastic and interesting.
They were all pakeha – but among other things, all were deeply cynical about the motives, attitudes and behaviour of the British and other colonialists.
One way to teach history, Dennis, is to use books. Books on history written from different perspectives. Teachers then teach their students about bias.
Teachers then recognise their own bias, as well. My Training College tutor had a trilogy of knowledge he passed on to me fifty years ago- "First, know yourself, then your students, then your subject'.
I taught History. Part of the course was NZ History. At the end of the year, I asked my students to tell me how I voted, based on perceived bias in my teaching. More than half got it wrong.
It is possible to teach without undue bias. Part of the role of history teacher is to explain historical bias, to help students recognise it and factor it into their own thinking- be it national, religious, cultural, class, political.
The unusual nature of history teaching is the reality that same practice I was giving to students to account for bias in the authorial content of the books they were reading was also directed at their own innate bias, and that of their teacher.
All in an ideal world, of course.
And I am, for these reasons and for general knowledge, understanding, the development of literary and argumentative skills and the need for evidence to support opinions, in favour of this government’s move to teach our history. Having been a part of this history for 72 years, I can see the need…….
I agree that teaching kids how to read bias is a good idea. Psychology around that tends to come from social niche as matrix, so shifting outside that square is a mental trick. Hard to do first time, then gets easier the more you do it.
I think you were probably more insightful than most teachers. Interpreting stuff does require a grasp of nuance most teachers lack.
One thing I learnt from being forty years in the teaching game.
People who have been to school think they know about teaching. Another thing is that people certainly remember who they call bad teachers, and some times the influential teacher/s in their lives. That then informs their judgment upon teaching as a practice,
That's like me knowing about medicine because I've been a patient, or coaching because I've been a player, or parenting because I've been a son.
Dennis, you missed an important point in my first comment- the need for evidence to back up opinions. You criticised current teachers, without offering evidence, when you wrote, “Would be good if today's teachers were more like you! We lack any evidence to assume they are.”
Upon what research do you base that last sentence? Your only evidence so far is based on your own schooling, like mine, many years ago.
‘Reckons’ are not enough.
I have been a teacher. I have been a relief teacher thereby seeing what other teacher's classrooms are like. I have read reports on students written by fellow teachers. I have been a parent on parent interview nights using my own teaching smarts to evaluate what I am hearing.
Unlike most, I have been a counselor/student discipline staff member. That work took me to the teachers who were struggling with a student. I heard both sides of the issue. I went into classrooms on a regular and uninvited basis. I walked the corridors during teaching time. I brokered agreements between staff and students. I read the comments on students written by teachers.
I wrote leaving assessments on students for years based on information from their teachers, on reports from every staff member.
For years I ran a Friday afternoon bar in the staffroom where I remained as a sober host observing my fellows as they processed a week's efforts.
I am married to a teacher and observed her practice and her colleagues.
I have been a student teacher, observing possibly fifty teachers in four schools in a year, a house master and a coach where I met other teachers. I have been on courses with teachers from other schools, and been on trips away with staff and students. I have socialised with staff on weekend fishing trips, been on two school boards as a parent representative and served on the local REAP.
Finally, I ended my working life as a school cleaner, interacting with teachers in their classrooms at the end of their working day, after the students had gone. I observed their classrooms.
I even cleaned the graffiti off their students' desks.
In all that 45 years experience, I did not meet many poor teachers.
Well, that's all worth considering. What comes to mind is the old adage that `the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. Can you actually quote sections of the curriculum which prove today's teachers are required to supplement the teaching of settler history with the teaching of Maori history?
Okay, let's assume you do understand that a draft document is a suggestion, not policy. As such, it is a scenario indicating a possible future for the nation. My comments have been in regard to the status quo, as a perpetual recycling of the past. Hypotheticals irrelevant.
Yeah but this sub-thread dealt with Mac's prior experience so I commented on that basis. I agree that the future looks brighter so if you think the draft rectifies history, I'll take your word for it. I'm not in leisure time currently (working on a project) so happy to try & be a wee bit more selective (re attacking public servants)…
Dennis, as a student and once a teacher of history, I know that even if the curriculum specifies 1840 as a starting point, there are always needing to be considered and taught the factors existing at 1840 that came from an earlier time.
This is why, when we teach the history of WW1 for example, that we don't begin on 28 July 1914. The context of that conflict goes back to 1870 and beyond.
Similarly, the Treaty of Waitangi did not come out of a vacuum.
Similarly, the Treaty of Waitangi did not come out of a vacuum.
It was – in the context of the era – a quite remarkable agreement. It was for instance the first time I know of that an indigenous peoples were granted citizenship in the empire of the world super-power of the day. Nor should we omit the Victorian motivation to eradicate chattel slavery. We all know this didn't play out perfectly – but it's still a turning point in world affairs.
Equally we tend to overlook Maori motivations – after 40 years of internal genocide many chiefs understood the need for change. The best parallel I can think of was the formation of the UN in the immediate aftermath of WW2. That didn’t turn out perfect either – but remains a monumental step in the right direction.
The signing of the Treaty was in many ways a brave and idealistic endeavour on both sides – an idea that can be celebrated and unite us as a nation.
One of the most moving tributes I ever saw was in Manchester in a square where I saw a statue of Abraham Lincoln.
Wondering why that should be there, I read the words on the plinth that were a 'respectful address' in 1862 to the President of the US supporting him in his fight against 'chattel slavery' from the Guilds, or Unions, of Manchester.
These were of course the cotton workers of Manchester who had a meeting and decided to support Lincoln even though they were hurting because of the blockade of the South and its cotton.
What a big-hearted, magnanimous gesture of these workers looking beyond their own interests to those of black American slaves.
In Birmingham cathedral that year they were honouring the 200th anniversary of the fight against slavery, which included an account of a huge meeting in the cathedral of antislaver citizens addressed by William Wilberforce in 1807.
The Treaty came out of that period of enlightenment.
Thanks for that insight mac1. Also there had been a wholehearted embrace of Christianity across Maori culture, sadly snuffed out by the betrayals of the settlers stealing Maori land for the decades following 1840. But there are still a few reminders of those fervent days, in the Ratana churches, and remembrance of Te Whiti and Parihaka.
Damn right. The United Tribes flag means something real! I think our future as Aotearoa will have to blend Te Tiriti with multiculturalism though.
We're fortunate that genetics invalidated racism. No word yet on how Moriori relate genetically to Maori, as far as I know, or if the Waitaha independent origin is real rather than legend…
Thanks mac. Both my parents were teachers and I can relate to what you have said here very much.
Not all teachers are the same, and there will always be those who are remembered for something special. But overall it's my sense that almost all are there for the kids.
Dennis, Ministry of Education not Department of Education. That changed 30 years ago.
Yes some Decile 1 2 3 schools may find the change challenging, but not as challenging as a whole of curriculum change, with the syllabus arriving with the children on the first day of school, as happened with National and then minister Lockwood Smith.
There was no training for its implementation for 12 long months.
This current change has been well signaled and resourced. Courses, resource people, units of work are being developed for each region as well as online resources
Southern DHB member Ilkha Beekhuis was the only member of the Southern DHB to vote against this motion yesterday.
The SDHB motion voted for by all members apart from Ilka Beekhuis: ‘‘Southern DHB, thankful to all those involved in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme, acknowledges achieving the milestone of 90% of the population receiving at least one dose; AND, with a commitment to the equitable protection of our people, is determined to meet a result of at least 90% double vaccinated for all ethnic groups (Maori, Pasifika, Asian, European and other), all age groups, and all urban and rural communities across the district.’’
It seems the DHB member is anti-vaccination. Clearly she struck to her principles and wouldn't vote a congratulations and a commitment. It is easy to conclude she thinks that the best Covid vaccination rate for the SDHB region is 0%.
"Ms Beekhuis said she had been approached by ‘‘an alarming number of people in our community who are experiencing life-changing reactions to the Covid vaccination’’.
‘‘I’ve personally been told of heart attacks, blood clots, renal problems, unexplainable pain, a loss of menstruation, and breast pain.’’
It's a wonder she didn't chuck in car crashes, inability to sleep and a desire to eat lots of chocolate.
If I were on the board I'd have fun forming motions to elicit her support to expose her attitudes. So insane of course the rational people, the others there, would vote against them.
"Motion: That the SDHB encourage all residents to not have covid vaccinations and do everything in its power to prevent campaigns encouraging it." She'd be into that boots and all.
The members are representative of the public. I suppose that would reflect the % of outliers. We thought the internet would inform, not misinform. Thanks Pete.
Speaking of history, both Māori and Pakeha, in two day's time it will be Parihaka Day, the 5th of November. And yes it is high time Aotearoa recognised this as a replacement for Guy Fawkes. 140 years ago on the 5th November 1881 government forces invaded the peaceful Māori settlement of Parihaka. They were met with children playing and offering bread. No one was killed on that day but in the days following rape and pillage was experienced. Parihaka is as important to us as Waitangi. It is our "Thanksgiving".
Popular in North America is to celebrate the grace shown by the indigenous peoples even when they had been invaded and and had their land and way of life stolen. So too Parihaka and what it stands for is an inspiration and source of pride for us all.
Yeah, good one Keith, I'll back you on that. The deep history of Parihaka needs to be clarified in our public life. My reading of Dick Scott's account long ago revealed Te Whiti's non-violent politics as seminal & inspiration for Gandhi.
Neo-colonialists would say, `yeah but he was a communist'. Well, so what? Moral righteousness is the question. Settler land-grabs based on the selling of common land that no Maori had a right to sell was a popular strategy. There's ongoing murk around chiefly entitlement to sell common land, not to mention whatever chiefly mana was held by those who signed the contract, rightly or wrongly…
Facebook Inc is now Meta Platforms Inc, and the company is squarely focused on pivoting into building a new virtual world, the eponymous ‘metaverse’. ‘Metaverse’ itself is a spectacularly unspecific word, which means different things depending on who you ask.
Postmodern thinking requires a world to be user-defined. The cult of individualism creates a supportive matrix for that.
Particularly for Aucklanders stuck working from home in a doom spiral of endless Zoom calls, the idea that anyone would actually choose to forgo an in-person social experience to inhabit a virtual room in the metaverse might be hard to imagine.
Zoom into that room to meet your doom.
Fortnite has rapidly morphed from a game to a social network, with over 250 million users, and a majority of those citing Fortnite’s social elements as their main reason for ‘playing’… Fortnite serves as an embryonic case study of what Facebook touts as the future.
Real world too boring? Try another world.
In July this year, President Joe Biden actually said that Facebook “was killing people”
Or maybe he virtually said that. Hard to tell nowadays…
In his novel Rainbows End Vernor Vinge explored this theme extensively.
There are many realities to choose from in the novel; however, the largest and more robust of them are built by large user bases in the manner of a wiki or Second Life. The confederation of users that contribute to the virtual world is called a belief circle. Several belief circles are presented in the novel, including worlds based on authors such as H. P. Lovecraft, Terry Pratchett, and the fictional Jerzy Hacek. Also mentioned are worlds based on the artwork of M. C. Escher, and fictional entertainment companies such as SpielbergRowling. The Egan Soccer set piece can also be seen as a type of subscribed Belief Circle.
This whole idea of "Belief Circles" is perhaps the most interesting – the idea that we could lose our social coherence and diverge into mutually exclusive populations with relatively little in the way of overlapping language, beliefs and values. To my mind this is a good example of taking tech modernity too damn far – chillingly so.
In this I can understand how a world view that emphasises a connection with nature and the physical demands of life can still play a vital role in anchoring humanity into at least one common reality. This is partly why I don't throw rocks at say Robert G and weka who are the main proponents of this here – while I disagree quite strongly on some points with them – that does not mean I want to diminish or reject that world view either.
The question worth asking here is this – if a high tech reality divides us into mutually incomprehensible fragments, and a reversion to the pre-industrial world dismantles modernity and globalisation – what belief system might unite us as a single species? What would it look like?
Incidentally, in consequence of your recommendation to us a while back, I acquired a couple of his books from a reseller & enjoyed them in recent months.
lose our social coherence and diverge into mutually exclusive segments with relatively little in the way of overlapping language, beliefs and values
Cultural morphing does seem to include devolving along with evolving.
Philosophically, this suggests a differentiation process along with an integration process, together producing the building of community. When it comes to non-local community-building, such as online social media, humans seem to default to differentiating. I suspect the cult of individualism drives that.
We evolved as social animals. Despite the ebb in the influence of nature and local community in our matrix, we have an internal drive to socialise.
if a high tech reality divides us into mutually incomprehensible fragments, and a reversion to the pre-industrial world dismantles modernity and globalisation – what belief system might unite us as a single species?
Depends which buttons in the psyche get pushed. We are motivated by desires, needs, fears, enthusiasms, and the necessity of decision-making choices. Onsite here, politics is spectator sport only. No thrill from participation. I contribute in the hope that folks will be stimulated into thought – a somewhat tepid altruism. Unity, in contrast, can only ever arrive on a genuine basis. Sufficient common interest. Collective survival threats looming may suffice…
Yeah, reminds us that it is actually possible for rightists to maintain an intelligent conversation. The search for the right rightists is always the problem.
Hoover was ranked as the tenth most influential think tank in the world in 2020 by Academic Influence, and the 22nd of the "Top Think Tanks in the United States" by the Global Go To Think Tank Index Report in 2019
Belief circles is only one of many scenarios and I would argue develop independent of technology anyway e.g. gated communities, expensive white suburbs, religion, cults, gangs, etc.
It is easy to ignore the benefits – greater awareness of world events in real time as well, connections with people you would never have made otherwise – my 30+ year old son is friends with people he met playing online when he was 8 (and yes they have met face to face), increased awareness and reading and research capabilities, the ability to build communities like this blog where different voices are heard – often over issues that I would never have come across/considered previously, increased productivity, reduced travel to and from work, the ability to read historical documents and books, etc, etc, etc.
“…what belief system might unite us as a single species? What would it look like?”
Animism 🙂
The mutually exclusive segmenting you describe is already occurring in society, at a rapidly increasing pace, but where it's going to impact most, is intra-personal; that is, inside of the head/mind of each of us. We're going to find/are finding greater and greater numbers of anomalies/misconceptions/contradictory beliefs, in our own minds. This, I believe, is the challenge facing us all 🙂
Yes. It was a big story here in WA for weeks. The cops dropped a hint a few nights ago that they were hopeful of a positive outcome.
From what I've seen the search and investigation were done well – as anything can be in such circumstances. Credit to the police and all those who've worked on this.
Let's see the numbers when AKL goes into Level 2. How high is the number of jobs currently subsidised via the Government? And could that be counted as 'seasonal' unemployment, or would that be cycnical? Seriously, lets call these last 12 weeks of covid unemployment by numbers.
And last, do we still count people who work at least one hour paid as 'employed'?
But nice numbers here. Looking good, forge ahead, lets move on.
18000 people off the job seekers means an annual saving well over $200 million. Instead, they're earning and paying tax. At the same time, wages go up; more money in circulation.
However the "underutilisation rate" is 9.2%. That includes people like me who are under-employed – e.g. have a part-time/casual job but need more hours and permanent work.
unemployment looks good at glance until you realise that
a. most jobs are created in Auckland, how many of these are covid realted? Jabbers and Contract Tracers in particular.
b. women are still way behind men. – nevermind though.
c. unterutilasation is over 10% for women, its better for men thus the under 10% number
d. 0 hour contracts are still high with 350.000+ people still working on the basis of these 'contracts' – essentially these guys have no job, but are on a on call / casual position at best.
e. how many of hte jobs in auckland – specifically hairdressers, retail, hospitality are hanging on due to the wage subsidy – ditto waikato, for what its worth, its starting to look shaky in Level 2 country too.
last, i don't expect anyone to really answer my questions as to how low ‘fulltime employment is’.
All of those scenarios are included in the underutilisation figures. Underutilisation is everyone who wants to work full time (30 hours/week) but isn't, whether they are not employed or working 1 hour a month, or 29.75 hours a week, or anything between those points.
Hence the calculation in my answer to your question.
That said, agree that 30 hours on current wages will not always be enough to live on, but then, 100 hours (total) isn't enough for many families, so addressing that isn't solely a matter of more hours.
It was 10.5% in the last release 3 months ago, so that's a significant drop as well. Women dropped from from 13% to 10.9% which is the lowest rate in the table, which dates back to 2004.
Does Judith Collins ever sound like a reasonably normal decent woman? On Radio NZ this morning she was, as usual, sarcastic, snide, unpleasant as she carped on about the PM going to Auckland.
Dr Reti on the other hand was quite the opposite. Don't know how he stomachs working with his leader.
Had a third dose of vaccine today, apparently not fully approved so had to answer questions and sign a special consent, just had to check I had a bandaid to be sure I had had it. Seems to have had less impact each dose, I'll have to be careful or ill find myself going out to get more doses for fun.
There’s a clear choice involved here. As Fallow concludes, a lot of the injured innocence emanating from those in council offices now clutching their precious water assets to their chest like so many Gollums, smacks more of a desire to protect jobs for the boys than a credible defence of local democracy. For people who gave Labour a clear mandate to govern at the last election, Three Waters is one of the few examples (so far) where the government seems prepared to spend its political capital on delivering an unpopular, widely misunderstood but essential package of reform.
Well done to the guy who gets in front of them with his climate change sign (and annoys one woman in particular!). Then we are treated to the anti-vax message from another woman, who really needs a hug.
The woman in the video said Ardern is on notice for crimes against humanity. If we switched that to neoliberalism, housing and poverty policies, and climate/ecology, isn't the statement hyberbole but containing some kind of truth?
It’s hard to know when to give up on something you like that consistently disappoints you, a lesson QAnon supporters learned for the umpteenth time when at least 100 conspiracists gathered in Dealey Plaza in Dallas on Tuesday. The die-hards — who have kept the plot in the air despite its likely architect bailing on Q after the Capitol riot — traveled to the place where John F. Kennedy was assassinated 58 years ago this November in the hope that his son, JFK Jr., would appear and reveal himself as their no longer anonymous leader.
But that didn’t stop rallygoers from wondering if they saw other deceased celebrities — like Robin Williams, Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Michael Jackson — joining them at the rally. In the end, all they got were their “Trump-JFK Jr. 2021” T-shirts and an ouroboros moment for American conspiracism
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/126851003/can-we-pay-other-countries-to-save-the-climate-for-us-should-we
You do understand that planting forests can only replace the carbon those forests released when they were cut down?
Planting trees to offset fossil fuels is farce of the the highest order.
farce
But the important thing is to create the right impression in the public mind. As long as everyone feels that climate change is being dealt with, political pressure to do more will abate. Remember that, in democracy, the sheeple rule. Weight of numbers.
DF, I am sure the sheeple would not feel that cc is being dealt with if they were properly informed about this issue.
Where are the media on this travesty? Absent as usual because the vested interests(their advertisers and owners) prefer to push neoliberalism.
A great question for the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw.
He is the Minister responsible.
He was supposed to have the entire plan ready next month – but we will now wait until May 2022.
Surely there will be an election and once more we be will be bedazzled with all the things they will do if we were to just elect them. Lol.
Ministers of Parliament, Money for nothing and perks too. Vote 2023
Minster Shaw has done a fairly average job in his two terms – in the same league as Stuart Nash for portfolio performance.
But there's a chance he'll return out of COP 26 with political upside.
There's also a chance he will get some redemption in May 2022 Budget with his whole-of-government plan and budget implications.
If he can continue to keep National on side through the Carbon Plan rollout as he has through the legislation, he will have embedded his plan for future Parliaments.
That makes for a tough first half of 2022 for him, but there's all to play for.
I am not a fan of the current set up of the green party, i find all of them without expection to be overhyped at best, useless at worst. So yeah, they will try and milk it for what its worth, being a MP beats working in real live – see covid – and the pay is much better too.
As i said, MPs, money for nothing perks for life, go elect us, what else would we be good for. 2023.
Every party has useless timeservers, and also those who are past their prime.
I don't see evidence Shaw is one of those.
Be great if Davidson stepped aside for swarbrick so we could see some actual progress
Don't trees absorb Carbon? Carbon from fossil fuel burning. We are constantly told that trees do exactly that, and people need to stop felling trees. Why is planting trees a farce?
because we cut them faster then we can plant them or they can grow into something large enough to be cut again.
Unless we leave these trees in the ground for the next say 300 years to actually become old forests you are playing nothing more then a losing game of catch up.
But hey, he got to go to Scotland during a pandemic, and now he can pretend to bring home some solutions – like we haven't known that we should be planting trees since the late 70's early 80's when trees died of acid rain.
But then, they birth one of them every year, and they grow into adults and really believe that know one knew until they came along and told us so.
Planting trees, a farce? Replanting the lost forests and woodlands of the planet is the most important action we can take to ensure our survival. The benefits of tree-planting extend far beyond the simple carbon issue you’re describing. In fact, I'd call those benefits immeasurable.
You are correct of course, planting trees does extend beyond the simple carbon issue.
However, pretending that it will do much or even save something (us) is a farce, considering that we cut our forrests far quicker then we ever plant them. Heck, go to suburbia, and count the trees. Guess what, they are the first thing to go in order to make way for carports and concreted over places for the 6 cars of the 6 adults living in a three bedroom house.
So yeah, he is quite right, it is a farce to make believe that we are actually doing something. But we don't.
But in saying that, i will plant some more trees, to make up for the 8 trees that were cut down on the property on the other side of the fence to make way for ……cars!!!, never mind the birds that have been made homeless. But lets blame cats for that.
I may be wrong, but unless those trees are burnt for fuel, the carbon remains within the timber surely ?.Yes, they are no longer taking carbon from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis,but the actual carbon they've gathered is not lost . The felled trees then need to be replaced with seedlings which will uptake carbon at a faster rate than mature trees (still uptaking carbon at a lower rate, but overall at a still significant rate )
More trees, forests in perpetuity, longer rotations , higher value for forestry plantations, more of the continuous canopy forestry model
Decomposing wood also releases carbon. Reforestration for carbon sequestration purposes needs to be more or less permanent.
and that is the issue, innit, if you leave the trees standing then there is no real profit.
Thats a bit of an issue with what society pays an income for. But there is a huge real payoff to certain reforestation projects which we don't get from the timber industry (though I suspect timber is better than farming for carbon sequestration, as its usually replanted).
Felled trees in a forestry situation tend to be milled into timber.I sure hope that wooden framing and cladding doesn't start decomposing straight away
Decomposing wood ( from naturally fallen trees) becomes part part of the current carbon cycle , carbon released to the atmosphere taken up again by those hopefully replanted forests .This carbon is separate from that released by burning fossil fuels. It's essential for the integrity of the carbon cycle that felled trees are immediately replaced by new plantings.
Agree. Even if you don't fell the forest trees die and are replaced.
Our Wilding pines are soaking up carbon but no credit's.
Dead right Tricledrown. But it would be more to our credit to rapidly phase out exotic pines from NZ totally. Indigenous forests only – short term pain but long term – total sense.
Pine whist in the short term does buy us time in consuming CO2. But at what cost to the long term uniqueness to NZ. And will that not and have created other problems, as they spread beyond the man made forrests ? "Wilding conifers are invasive weeds that threaten to permanently alter the unique landscapes that are only found in New Zealand."
Perhaps we need deeper thinkers to the solution and not take the easiest option
https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/weeds/common-weeds/wilding-conifers/
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/biosecurity/long-term-biosecurity-management-programmes/wilding-conifers/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/399192/green-rush-will-pines-really-save-the-planet
The environment doesn't care about uniqueness.
The environment doesn't care about ethnicities.
Nor should we.
I said thinking planting trees to offset fossil fuel us is a farce ,dir to the fact that anywhere that a tree gets planted was most likely home to a tree we (royal we)cut down in the past, so at best we are only capturing the carbon lost from that action
"so at best we are only capturing the carbon lost from that action"
Exactly. A very useful thing to do.
Carbon gets released when the trees cut down? Dont think so.
It entirely depends on the next steps for the cut trees (and the land they are grown on)… do they rot back into the soil, are they burnt, used for building materials, or making furniture? Unless burnt, the carbon eventually ends up back in the soil and sequestered, as long as the soil is looked after.
And that is the key, protect the soil, and we sequester carbon. Traditional monoculture tree growing and clearfelling techniques are not good because of the damage to the soil during growing and after harvest.
Carbon is carbon, it doesn't care where it comes from (fossil fuels or whatever)
If you increase carbon in standing biomass (by planting trees in places that are currently not forest), this will absorb carbon from the atmosphere for as long as the increased biomass remains.
Yeahbut we could plant the whole planet and it would not offset 1 bit of carbon released since Og accidentally burnt the cave down when his shiny new hearth stones turned out to be the until then unknown coal.
But people just wrap themselves up in the feel good cloak of planting a few trees and charging along as normal.
Until scientists come up with a viable carbon capture you going to be a slowly roasted prawn my friend
this is simply not true b.
If you take a hillside currently in pasture, and you reforest it, that area of land is sequestering carbon until it reaches a climax forest state. At the point, leave it the fuck alone (ie don't treat it like a grab bag of resources), because as Robert points out, there are multiple benefits to a forest. Maybe it's a wild forest, maybe it's a food forest, maybe it can be selectively logged, maybe it's part of a grazing system. But leave it there.
NZ has a very large amount of land that we could do this with. Here's the rub: you can't use it as a swap for releasing GHGs. We would have to use it as a carbon sink and reduce GHG emissions at the same time.
We also know that regenerative agriculture both reduces emissions and sequesters carbon, if done well it's a net sink. Think about all the pasture on the planet that is currently being ploughed every year (releasing carbon) and what would happen if we stopped ploughing (far less carbon release) and managed the land regeneratively (carbon stored permanently as the soil rebuilds).
Again, do that and reduce GHGs emissions at the same time, don't use it as a trade off to burn fossil fuels or do industrial dairying.
If we had any bloody sense we would be giving our R and D sector (private and government) shit loads of funding because those techs already exist. But hey, people want to believe in the fantasy of high tech CCS that doesn't even exist yet instead of what is already in our backyards. That's the problem we face right now.
time I wrote a post about this, grr.
here's one from May,
https://thestandard.org.nz/regenerative-agriculture-and-climate-solutions/
Your not understanding me.
As that grassy hill was once forest, when you plant it you are just recapturing the carbon released when it was cleared, (that doesn't make it a bad thing to do .)
What I'm saying is this fucking delusion that many ,including this government and Mr Shaw, think that planting trees here or in brazil will offset carbon being released now. It won't .
We have been releasing carbon since we made our first adze and mastered fire through deforestation so any planting can only recapture that carbon ,
What humans and nature did prior to the Industrial Revolution was largely manageable for the planet within the natural carbon cycle. There are some notable exceptions, but it wasn’t significantly from human activities.
There are regenag people who make the claim that regenag can sequester all the carbon released by humans since the IR. Whether that's overstating and by how much I don't know, but it is true that regenag can sequester more carbon than is commonly thought. eg Joel Salatin says over something like five decades he's rebuilt inches of topsoil on his farm. Mainstream scientists say it takes millennia to do that (I'm being rough with my figures here, don't have them in my head).
For your theory to be true, the amount of carbon released when the paddock deforested would have to be the same or more than the carbon captured when the forest is replanted. The account would also need to take into account the growing deficit over the decades since then globally.
But ultimately this is reductionist thinking. From a whole systems point of view, we have to reforest, restore native ecosystems, and convert pasture and cropping to regenag, because those are the things that put us back in the natural carbon cycle. We also have to stop polluting the atmosphere further. Whether all of that is enough, I doubt that anyone knows, but it's still the right thing to do because the only way that life on earth, including our own, will survive is if we become part of those natural cycles again.
And yes, NZ's climate commitment of buying credits from other countries so we can still have industrial export dairying is insane. But guess who voted for this? It wasn't James Shaw.
I wrote a post about it yesterday. https://thestandard.org.nz/alt-cop26-get-in-line-or-get-out-of-the-way/
Scale:
https://www.agweek.com/business/4532073-salatin-talks-fixes-soil-nd-soil-conservation-meeting
Someone else can look up the amount of carbon lost on that land when it was originally degraded, because I find the focus on linear maths a cul de sac without the whole systems view.
Lynn has things to say about why he thinks the maths are wrong on sequestration (to do with long geological time frames) but I’ve not understood his points well.
"What humans and nature did prior to the Industrial Revolution was largely manageable.." IMO the dramatic increase of the world pop., increase in life expectancy + improvements in standard of living appears to align with the graph on "global primary energy by source". Never come across this site before, has some interesting information/data.
https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption
https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth
very good.
Also that graph, if anyone still thinks we're going to replace fossil fuels with renewables and have BAU, lol.
Yes I was taken back by this – Such info should be widely circulated as to the immense size of the issue. Unfortunately it is very deflating, and if any in Glasgow are honest there is IMO a massive trade off that we have to face. Screw the planet and suffer the consequences the .005% will be ok. or allow humans to manage the issue and face massive issues pop. reduction and reduced living stds and hope that the consequences are less severe.
I personally believe (and it is a belief) that we still have time to do this in an ok way. I don't fear the Powerdown because I've lived most of my adult life with the benefits of that kind of living and I know many others that are the same. I get the good aspects of that in my bones.
I also rate regenag highly for its ability to both produce food/materials and restore ecological sanity. NZ can probably produce food for other places in the world regeneratively, and large land masses like the US can too. We've seen that urban farming is successful, and that humans can work together.
The biggest issue is we just don't have the stories of how to do this in the mainstream and many people are addicted to high consumption lifestyles and just can't imagine being ok without them.
Dr Vincent O’Malley is a New Zealand writer and historian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2021/nov/02/new-zealands-children-will-all-soon-study-the-countrys-brutal-history-its-not-before-time
Aotearoans have been performing their long march out of colonialism for many decades. Perhaps this sees them entering the home straight?
It's related to why Auckland cops call their HQ Bullshit Castle. Obviously the police hierarchy are required to administer neo-colonialist procedures, so the ranks are just calling a spade a spade. And you can't blame teachers for teaching what was required in the 19th century during the 21st century. The inertial effect of bureaucracy rolls on forever. Until the PM threw the binary switch on them!
So now we'll get pakeha teachers trying to teach our history from a Maori perspective as well as from a settler perspective. That'll be fun! Will they wheel in a token Maori instead? Treaty zealots will point out that each school ought to have a Maori teacher on staff to provide historical balance – but you can expect the Education Dept bureaucrats to die in the ditches trying to prevent such progress from happening…
Instead of taking a general sneer at MoE and teaching, why not just celebrate it as a good policy idea being implemented.
It is a great idea & should be celebrated. The next few generations are going to be awesomely well informed.
Also personally looking forward to Matariki next year.
I suspect it's going to be a day of national relief. One to say thanks to each other.
Never ceases to amaze me how well New Zealand has held together despite all the potential for ethnic division that could have been caused over the last two years.
German teachers are teaching German history from the perspective of the victims. It can actually be done, without issues and without guilting the kids for the sins of their forfathers. We call it 'denazification', 'umerziehumg' – to turn education over. Surely this too can be done here, unless you are saying that Pakeha teacers – which is every one bar Maori, are unable to do so. And frankly that would be a very sad statement from you on behalf of teachers.
The irony in those comments by DF, RL whoever is they're from a coloniser POV, yet they don't see that. "Why can't we all just be one people". It'll get better.
I am worried about one thing, namely that hte education runs down to 'all whites are racists'.
I was ashamed as an eleven year old – Sister Rosa did a good job, it helped that she was alive during the time a student in Munich. The White Rose ment something to her physically, emotionally and intellectually. Maybe that was the difference. But i went on to try to find 'good germans'. It makes for funny adults later in life.
Dachau is a place 60 kms from where i live, let me tell you something, Everyone knew what was going on, everyone was aware of whom was killed there, and everyone was scared shitless that they too could have ended up in the ovens. that is something that i understood much later in life.
So i really really hope that the MOE drives a fine line of education of the past as written by those that were killed, removed from their lands, raped and hanged, but still understands and teaches that they white kids of today – are not the perpetrator, heck some may not even be 'Kiwis' but first generations immigrants.
A fine line indeed. And frankly i am not sure our calibre of government stooges is actually able to create that curriculum.
But it can be done.
Have you had a look at The Good Germans, by Catrine Clay? I've been winding through it recently.
It is a great idea but I remember the seventies debacle on trying to have a maori teacher of Maori in all secondary schools. What a ballsup.
Also what about all the Conservative Private schools? Can you imagine them avidly teaching the errors of colonialism and settler attitudes (still prevalent now).
You know that was 50 years ago right?
It is not my preference that I happen to be a septuagenarian and that I happened to be a teacher at the time !
I too was a teacher at that time, and I would add that this is exactly the kind of area where history does tend to repeat..
I thought that was pretty dumb as well. But it happens I learned history at school from an Austrian (also the German teacher). While we were covering the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I brought the idea that Nagasaki was bombed in the knowledge that Japan was ready to surrender, to class. Now either that wasn't in the curriculum or you had to be Japanese to teach it like that (and no, I didn't get that idea from anybody who is Japanese).
I was taught the History of the British Empire and Commonwealth by a Tanzanian Gujarati history teacher in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) as a kid – absolutely riveting version!
That was US American History and Austria was also occupied by the US. I guess there is so much more to the nuclear bombings of Japan that hte US would not want taught. Even in Germany you will be hard pressed to find much history teaching of US modern history that reflects the voices of Native and African American and Mexican voices.
Sister Rosa walked us through these bombings and we left this particular scene of slaughter with the knowledge that no one can claim moral superiority and do such an act, not to win, but to enforce total submission.
As i said, it can be done. But it actually takes courage.
a curious thing i noticed with this development – a concentration on 19th century wars only.
aotearoa's history is fascinating, with a lot more to discover yet
but it needs to go way back to the currently understood beginning and, if it is going to include conflict, include all conflicts, pre-euro as well. The arrivals of the polynesians is fascinating, as is their rapid spread around the islands, their societal changes a couple centuries after arrival, on it goes …
i fear the curriculum will be selective though and not comprehensive, with less appealing components left out, as is always the case
A text I've really enjoyed recently is Pakeha Settlements in a Maori World: New Zealand Archaeology 1769-1860.
Fleshes out the Anne Salmond series with the plans, artefacts, and initial interactions.
Cool, thanks I'll check it out. Have been devouring anything and everything on NZ history the last couple years, plus anything and everything anthropological… early manwoman walking out of africa, the numerous hominid species and their interactions, the constant colonisation and recolonisation of lands since forever, how late they lived (very recently and the source of our 'myths' around fairies, mountain people, bigfoot, etc the world over I think). The entire area is on a very steep upwards trajectory of increasing knowledge..
Thanks Have noted that.
As a teacher of Year 7&8s, with degree in History and a wide reading of New Zealand history, I'm fucking incensed at your patronising bullshit, Dennis.
Yes, I'm male, yes I'm Pakeha, yes I'm old, but none of that invalidates my ability to lead students through the history of their own country. We will cover as much pre colonial as we can. Early contacts, Te Tiriti, The New Zealand wars, the ongoing affects of colonisation, the role of women, and plenty more.
So don't give me that sanctimonious crap.
Give teachers the credit they deserve.
Well said Stephen
Okay, you're an exception to the rule, good for you. I'm reflecting my experience of the education system, from a prior generation. Would be good if today's teachers were more like you! We lack any evidence to assume they are.
Maybe you should put that disclaimer up first, or last what ever, before essentially proclaiming that you don't think todays teachers don't pass the muster.
Sometimes one must be provocative to flush out the truth of things. Emotional reactions from those who see things differently are understandable. However we haven't had the kind of mass signalling from the establishment that would persuade us that a substantial shift has occurred. Until someone fronts with evidence on the points I made, I'll probably have to keep making those points.
nah, you were just insulting pretty much any non Maori teacher in this country.
I just reread what I wrote and can't see any evidence to validate your claim. I'm not responsible for any guilt trip that teachers impose upon themselves.
no teacher here, but what ever.
Going by my mostly Pakeha Teachers in the 60's and 70's, they were well aware of NZ's colonial history and it's effects. And taught us about it.
I learnt about Parihaka and Te Whiti, at primary school, in Taranaki, in the 60's, for example.
Well that's good to know. I sure as hell didn't, in Taranaki in the '50s – nor at Intermediate, here in New Plymouth. Nor at college in Wanganui.
And my dad's father, who told me his grandfather had lived in Parihaka, failed to fill in any details of that. Being a kid when he mentioned it, I never thought it might be worth asking. If it were not for the `seen but not heard' ethos in regard to children, I may have expressed curiosity. He never even said his grandad was a soldier at the time – maybe wasn't told.
That is you. Many of my contempories had enterly different experiences.
And, When I was Teaching, I met burnt out Teachers, frustrated Teachers, mediocre Teachers, superb Teachers and everything in between. But very few that didn't care deeply about the job, and the kids they were Teaching.
The “time servers” were rare, and tended to roost in private or high decile schools where they could go home at 1500.
Several of my older Pakeha relatives, gone now of course, taught in "Native Schools" in Maori and English. Looking back, they helped inform that generation of Maori activism. Being almost all "old soldiers" and or trade Unionists, and sceptical of "English Imperialism".
I found history fascinating at high school (Christchurch), and the teachers enthusiastic and interesting.
They were all pakeha – but among other things, all were deeply cynical about the motives, attitudes and behaviour of the British and other colonialists.
One way to teach history, Dennis, is to use books. Books on history written from different perspectives. Teachers then teach their students about bias.
Teachers then recognise their own bias, as well. My Training College tutor had a trilogy of knowledge he passed on to me fifty years ago- "First, know yourself, then your students, then your subject'.
I taught History. Part of the course was NZ History. At the end of the year, I asked my students to tell me how I voted, based on perceived bias in my teaching. More than half got it wrong.
It is possible to teach without undue bias. Part of the role of history teacher is to explain historical bias, to help students recognise it and factor it into their own thinking- be it national, religious, cultural, class, political.
The unusual nature of history teaching is the reality that same practice I was giving to students to account for bias in the authorial content of the books they were reading was also directed at their own innate bias, and that of their teacher.
All in an ideal world, of course.
And I am, for these reasons and for general knowledge, understanding, the development of literary and argumentative skills and the need for evidence to support opinions, in favour of this government’s move to teach our history. Having been a part of this history for 72 years, I can see the need…….
I agree that teaching kids how to read bias is a good idea. Psychology around that tends to come from social niche as matrix, so shifting outside that square is a mental trick. Hard to do first time, then gets easier the more you do it.
I think you were probably more insightful than most teachers. Interpreting stuff does require a grasp of nuance most teachers lack.
One thing I learnt from being forty years in the teaching game.
People who have been to school think they know about teaching. Another thing is that people certainly remember who they call bad teachers, and some times the influential teacher/s in their lives. That then informs their judgment upon teaching as a practice,
That's like me knowing about medicine because I've been a patient, or coaching because I've been a player, or parenting because I've been a son.
Dennis, you missed an important point in my first comment- the need for evidence to back up opinions. You criticised current teachers, without offering evidence, when you wrote, “Would be good if today's teachers were more like you! We lack any evidence to assume they are.”
Upon what research do you base that last sentence? Your only evidence so far is based on your own schooling, like mine, many years ago.
‘Reckons’ are not enough.
I have been a teacher. I have been a relief teacher thereby seeing what other teacher's classrooms are like. I have read reports on students written by fellow teachers. I have been a parent on parent interview nights using my own teaching smarts to evaluate what I am hearing.
Unlike most, I have been a counselor/student discipline staff member. That work took me to the teachers who were struggling with a student. I heard both sides of the issue. I went into classrooms on a regular and uninvited basis. I walked the corridors during teaching time. I brokered agreements between staff and students. I read the comments on students written by teachers.
I wrote leaving assessments on students for years based on information from their teachers, on reports from every staff member.
For years I ran a Friday afternoon bar in the staffroom where I remained as a sober host observing my fellows as they processed a week's efforts.
I am married to a teacher and observed her practice and her colleagues.
I have been a student teacher, observing possibly fifty teachers in four schools in a year, a house master and a coach where I met other teachers. I have been on courses with teachers from other schools, and been on trips away with staff and students. I have socialised with staff on weekend fishing trips, been on two school boards as a parent representative and served on the local REAP.
Finally, I ended my working life as a school cleaner, interacting with teachers in their classrooms at the end of their working day, after the students had gone. I observed their classrooms.
I even cleaned the graffiti off their students' desks.
In all that 45 years experience, I did not meet many poor teachers.
Well, that's all worth considering. What comes to mind is the old adage that `the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. Can you actually quote sections of the curriculum which prove today's teachers are required to supplement the teaching of settler history with the teaching of Maori history?
Great way to sneer at a lifetime of public service Dennis.
Since you're too lazy to look, here's the draft curriculum. Figure it out for yourself with some actual reading.
Social sciences / The New Zealand Curriculum / Kia ora – NZ Curriculum Online (tki.org.nz)
You being silly? What part of the word draft don't you understand yet?
Stop being lazy and insulting at the same time. Read it first. Then comment. It helps with thinking.
Okay, let's assume you do understand that a draft document is a suggestion, not policy. As such, it is a scenario indicating a possible future for the nation. My comments have been in regard to the status quo, as a perpetual recycling of the past. Hypotheticals irrelevant.
To correct you, your comment started precisely about the new history curriculum.
Don't try and re-write your own commenting history in the course of a morning.
You have developed a very bad habit of attacking public servants and you need to stop.
Yeah but this sub-thread dealt with Mac's prior experience so I commented on that basis. I agree that the future looks brighter so if you think the draft rectifies history, I'll take your word for it. I'm not in leisure time currently (working on a project) so happy to try & be a wee bit more selective (re attacking public servants)…
Dennis, as a student and once a teacher of history, I know that even if the curriculum specifies 1840 as a starting point, there are always needing to be considered and taught the factors existing at 1840 that came from an earlier time.
This is why, when we teach the history of WW1 for example, that we don't begin on 28 July 1914. The context of that conflict goes back to 1870 and beyond.
Similarly, the Treaty of Waitangi did not come out of a vacuum.
Similarly, the Treaty of Waitangi did not come out of a vacuum.
It was – in the context of the era – a quite remarkable agreement. It was for instance the first time I know of that an indigenous peoples were granted citizenship in the empire of the world super-power of the day. Nor should we omit the Victorian motivation to eradicate chattel slavery. We all know this didn't play out perfectly – but it's still a turning point in world affairs.
Equally we tend to overlook Maori motivations – after 40 years of internal genocide many chiefs understood the need for change. The best parallel I can think of was the formation of the UN in the immediate aftermath of WW2. That didn’t turn out perfect either – but remains a monumental step in the right direction.
The signing of the Treaty was in many ways a brave and idealistic endeavour on both sides – an idea that can be celebrated and unite us as a nation.
One of the most moving tributes I ever saw was in Manchester in a square where I saw a statue of Abraham Lincoln.
Wondering why that should be there, I read the words on the plinth that were a 'respectful address' in 1862 to the President of the US supporting him in his fight against 'chattel slavery' from the Guilds, or Unions, of Manchester.
These were of course the cotton workers of Manchester who had a meeting and decided to support Lincoln even though they were hurting because of the blockade of the South and its cotton.
What a big-hearted, magnanimous gesture of these workers looking beyond their own interests to those of black American slaves.
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2013/feb/04/lincoln-oscars-manchester-cotton-abraham
In Birmingham cathedral that year they were honouring the 200th anniversary of the fight against slavery, which included an account of a huge meeting in the cathedral of antislaver citizens addressed by William Wilberforce in 1807.
The Treaty came out of that period of enlightenment.
Thanks. That makes the linkage of ideas I was looking for far better than I managed.
Thanks for that insight mac1. Also there had been a wholehearted embrace of Christianity across Maori culture, sadly snuffed out by the betrayals of the settlers stealing Maori land for the decades following 1840. But there are still a few reminders of those fervent days, in the Ratana churches, and remembrance of Te Whiti and Parihaka.
.
Oh for chrissakes, don't mention the Musket Wars, RL ! … the wars that dare not speak their name among polite Upper-Middle Woke Society !
Spoils the highly paternalistic Noble Savage Romanticism.
God knows I've been burned on that one before, but I thought to sneak it in one more time under the taiaha as it were.
Damn right. The United Tribes flag means something real! I think our future as Aotearoa will have to blend Te Tiriti with multiculturalism though.
We're fortunate that genetics invalidated racism. No word yet on how Moriori relate genetically to Maori, as far as I know, or if the Waitaha independent origin is real rather than legend…
Thanks mac. Both my parents were teachers and I can relate to what you have said here very much.
Not all teachers are the same, and there will always be those who are remembered for something special. But overall it's my sense that almost all are there for the kids.
Dennis, Ministry of Education not Department of Education. That changed 30 years ago.
Yes some Decile 1 2 3 schools may find the change challenging, but not as challenging as a whole of curriculum change, with the syllabus arriving with the children on the first day of school, as happened with National and then minister Lockwood Smith.
There was no training for its implementation for 12 long months.
This current change has been well signaled and resourced. Courses, resource people, units of work are being developed for each region as well as online resources
Southern DHB member Ilkha Beekhuis was the only member of the Southern DHB to vote against this motion yesterday.
SDHB member votes against 90% motion | Otago Daily Times Online News (odt.co.nz)
Couldn't even get herself to vote a congratulations and a commitment.
Hey Ilkha, come the merger, don't let that door hit you on the way out.
It seems the DHB member is anti-vaccination. Clearly she struck to her principles and wouldn't vote a congratulations and a commitment. It is easy to conclude she thinks that the best Covid vaccination rate for the SDHB region is 0%.
"Ms Beekhuis said she had been approached by ‘‘an alarming number of people in our community who are experiencing life-changing reactions to the Covid vaccination’’.
‘‘I’ve personally been told of heart attacks, blood clots, renal problems, unexplainable pain, a loss of menstruation, and breast pain.’’
It's a wonder she didn't chuck in car crashes, inability to sleep and a desire to eat lots of chocolate.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dhb-member-voiced-‘grave-concerns’-about-jab-mandate
If I were on the board I'd have fun forming motions to elicit her support to expose her attitudes. So insane of course the rational people, the others there, would vote against them.
"Motion: That the SDHB encourage all residents to not have covid vaccinations and do everything in its power to prevent campaigns encouraging it." She'd be into that boots and all.
🤩nice one Pete
The members are representative of the public. I suppose that would reflect the % of outliers. We thought the internet would inform, not misinform. Thanks Pete.
I see she has a management background and no medical training. Not the person to go to for medical advice.
https://hcocharitabletrust.co.nz/about/trustees/ms-ilka-beekhuis/
Speaking of history, both Māori and Pakeha, in two day's time it will be Parihaka Day, the 5th of November. And yes it is high time Aotearoa recognised this as a replacement for Guy Fawkes. 140 years ago on the 5th November 1881 government forces invaded the peaceful Māori settlement of Parihaka. They were met with children playing and offering bread. No one was killed on that day but in the days following rape and pillage was experienced. Parihaka is as important to us as Waitangi. It is our "Thanksgiving".
Popular in North America is to celebrate the grace shown by the indigenous peoples even when they had been invaded and and had their land and way of life stolen. So too Parihaka and what it stands for is an inspiration and source of pride for us all.
Yeah, good one Keith, I'll back you on that. The deep history of Parihaka needs to be clarified in our public life. My reading of Dick Scott's account long ago revealed Te Whiti's non-violent politics as seminal & inspiration for Gandhi.
Neo-colonialists would say, `yeah but he was a communist'. Well, so what? Moral righteousness is the question. Settler land-grabs based on the selling of common land that no Maori had a right to sell was a popular strategy. There's ongoing murk around chiefly entitlement to sell common land, not to mention whatever chiefly mana was held by those who signed the contract, rightly or wrongly…
Some of it was "those stupid Pakeha, paying for something they cannot take away".
Different cultures and world veiws.
Irish Return an Old Favor, Helping Native Americans Battling the Virus – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Fave new world:
Postmodern thinking requires a world to be user-defined. The cult of individualism creates a supportive matrix for that.
Zoom into that room to meet your doom.
Real world too boring? Try another world.
Or maybe he virtually said that. Hard to tell nowadays…
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/metaverse-is-the-future-but-not-facebooks
In his novel Rainbows End Vernor Vinge explored this theme extensively.
This whole idea of "Belief Circles" is perhaps the most interesting – the idea that we could lose our social coherence and diverge into mutually exclusive populations with relatively little in the way of overlapping language, beliefs and values. To my mind this is a good example of taking tech modernity too damn far – chillingly so.
In this I can understand how a world view that emphasises a connection with nature and the physical demands of life can still play a vital role in anchoring humanity into at least one common reality. This is partly why I don't throw rocks at say Robert G and weka who are the main proponents of this here – while I disagree quite strongly on some points with them – that does not mean I want to diminish or reject that world view either.
The question worth asking here is this – if a high tech reality divides us into mutually incomprehensible fragments, and a reversion to the pre-industrial world dismantles modernity and globalisation – what belief system might unite us as a single species? What would it look like?
Vernor Vinge
Incidentally, in consequence of your recommendation to us a while back, I acquired a couple of his books from a reseller & enjoyed them in recent months.
lose our social coherence and diverge into mutually exclusive segments with relatively little in the way of overlapping language, beliefs and values
Cultural morphing does seem to include devolving along with evolving.
Philosophically, this suggests a differentiation process along with an integration process, together producing the building of community. When it comes to non-local community-building, such as online social media, humans seem to default to differentiating. I suspect the cult of individualism drives that.
We evolved as social animals. Despite the ebb in the influence of nature and local community in our matrix, we have an internal drive to socialise.
if a high tech reality divides us into mutually incomprehensible fragments, and a reversion to the pre-industrial world dismantles modernity and globalisation – what belief system might unite us as a single species?
Depends which buttons in the psyche get pushed. We are motivated by desires, needs, fears, enthusiasms, and the necessity of decision-making choices. Onsite here, politics is spectator sport only. No thrill from participation. I contribute in the hope that folks will be stimulated into thought – a somewhat tepid altruism. Unity, in contrast, can only ever arrive on a genuine basis. Sufficient common interest. Collective survival threats looming may suffice…
You really don't have to agree with everything being said here, but interesting all the same:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzAdeTTkXPI
Yeah, reminds us that it is actually possible for rightists to maintain an intelligent conversation. The search for the right rightists is always the problem.
So you can see why they sponsored the panel. I liked the style critique: animated Zuck seeming more convincingly human than real Zuck.
Belief circles is only one of many scenarios and I would argue develop independent of technology anyway e.g. gated communities, expensive white suburbs, religion, cults, gangs, etc.
It is easy to ignore the benefits – greater awareness of world events in real time as well, connections with people you would never have made otherwise – my 30+ year old son is friends with people he met playing online when he was 8 (and yes they have met face to face), increased awareness and reading and research capabilities, the ability to build communities like this blog where different voices are heard – often over issues that I would never have come across/considered previously, increased productivity, reduced travel to and from work, the ability to read historical documents and books, etc, etc, etc.
It is definitely not doom and gloom.
“…what belief system might unite us as a single species? What would it look like?”
Animism 🙂
The mutually exclusive segmenting you describe is already occurring in society, at a rapidly increasing pace, but where it's going to impact most, is intra-personal; that is, inside of the head/mind of each of us. We're going to find/are finding greater and greater numbers of anomalies/misconceptions/contradictory beliefs, in our own minds. This, I believe, is the challenge facing us all 🙂
If someone is infected with Covid, how will this affect the sandflies which suck his blood?
And will the sandfies (or any other bloodsuckers) pass on covid?
Interesting question. Theoretically yes, but HeP C is still the main virus that's transmitted by blood.
Little Cleo found alive. Unbelievably great news. Not expected I don’t think
Yes. It was a big story here in WA for weeks. The cops dropped a hint a few nights ago that they were hopeful of a positive outcome.
From what I've seen the search and investigation were done well – as anything can be in such circumstances. Credit to the police and all those who've worked on this.
yes, the best news.
So glad her family has her back.
Yes, unexpected but glorious news.
Great news!
And very nice of that man to 'help them with their enquiries' too.
Euphemisms!
Very good news.
Terrific news
3.4% headline unemployment in New Zealand.
First time since before the GFC in 2008.
Labour crunch: NZ unemployment hits lowest level on record – NZ Herald
Don't take no crap from the boss.
Let's see the numbers when AKL goes into Level 2. How high is the number of jobs currently subsidised via the Government? And could that be counted as 'seasonal' unemployment, or would that be cycnical? Seriously, lets call these last 12 weeks of covid unemployment by numbers.
And last, do we still count people who work at least one hour paid as 'employed'?
But nice numbers here. Looking good, forge ahead, lets move on.
18000 people off the job seekers means an annual saving well over $200 million. Instead, they're earning and paying tax. At the same time, wages go up; more money in circulation.
It's a shambles.
Yip we need more cheap immigrants and young tourists to get those people back on the dole asap.
However the "underutilisation rate" is 9.2%. That includes people like me who are under-employed – e.g. have a part-time/casual job but need more hours and permanent work.
I will try to link to the Stats NZ site.
“I will try to link to the Stats NZ site.”
Failed
can you cut and paste a section of the text? Others can then link from that
section of the text from Statistics NZ website
The underutilisation rate is equally as important as the unemployment rate. It gives a broader measure of untapped capacity in the labour market
this one?
https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/underutilisation-rate
this link is better, but you have to scroll.
short
unemployment looks good at glance until you realise that
a. most jobs are created in Auckland, how many of these are covid realted? Jabbers and Contract Tracers in particular.
b. women are still way behind men. – nevermind though.
c. unterutilasation is over 10% for women, its better for men thus the under 10% number
d. 0 hour contracts are still high with 350.000+ people still working on the basis of these 'contracts' – essentially these guys have no job, but are on a on call / casual position at best.
e. how many of hte jobs in auckland – specifically hairdressers, retail, hospitality are hanging on due to the wage subsidy – ditto waikato, for what its worth, its starting to look shaky in Level 2 country too.
last, i don't expect anyone to really answer my questions as to how low ‘fulltime employment is’.
"unemployment looks good " 🙂
Underutilisation for women still needs to improve, but it's the lowest figure in the table which goes back to 2004.
Full time employment is everyone who is not included as underutilised i.e. it is 90.8% of the available workforce.
1 hour per week for profit is considered employed.
Some 375.000 people are on an unemployment benefit. So maybe really it is not quite as rosy as you and the govt like to paint this.
But let me repeat this again,
1 hour per week for profit is ocnsidered employed.
having signd a 0 hour contract is considered employed.
30 hours is considered full time employed
all of the three lots of people in these scenarios are still depended on the government to pay their bills.
but yeah, right, what ever makes you feel good.
All of those scenarios are included in the underutilisation figures. Underutilisation is everyone who wants to work full time (30 hours/week) but isn't, whether they are not employed or working 1 hour a month, or 29.75 hours a week, or anything between those points.
Hence the calculation in my answer to your question.
That said, agree that 30 hours on current wages will not always be enough to live on, but then, 100 hours (total) isn't enough for many families, so addressing that isn't solely a matter of more hours.
At 8.3.1111 Yes. Thank you Weka!
👍
The underutilisation rate is also down, said the news today.
It was 10.5% in the last release 3 months ago, so that's a significant drop as well. Women dropped from from 13% to 10.9% which is the lowest rate in the table, which dates back to 2004.
Does Judith Collins ever sound like a reasonably normal decent woman? On Radio NZ this morning she was, as usual, sarcastic, snide, unpleasant as she carped on about the PM going to Auckland.
Dr Reti on the other hand was quite the opposite. Don't know how he stomachs working with his leader.
It is called "good cop bad cop" a system used to confuse and wear down the target. imo
Lasted from Chris Martenson for anyone interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnB8Tep92Us
Had a third dose of vaccine today, apparently not fully approved so had to answer questions and sign a special consent, just had to check I had a bandaid to be sure I had had it. Seems to have had less impact each dose, I'll have to be careful or ill find myself going out to get more doses for fun.
Go to the "non-vaxxed" persons only cafe in Collingwood and tell them you have had 3….that should stir them up
Actually he's a very peaceable guy and not likely to be stirred up by anything.He's quite well thought of , his eccentricities tolerated .
Things will probably change if covid comes to Collingwood
Good stuff in the sidebar.
Gordon Campbell on why Three Waters is a good idea worth supporting – werewolf
Video of the protesters in Whanganui today.
Well done to the guy who gets in front of them with his climate change sign (and annoys one woman in particular!). Then we are treated to the anti-vax message from another woman, who really needs a hug.
Evil media provide free platform for protest against evil media
Maybe with the buses doing the vaccination rounds in place like Whanganui they can send a mental health bus.
please don't do that.
That's cheered me up!
The anti-vaxxers claim to be terrified of clots, yet they are infested with them 🙂
The woman in the video said Ardern is on notice for crimes against humanity. If we switched that to neoliberalism, housing and poverty policies, and climate/ecology, isn't the statement hyberbole but containing some kind of truth?
Exactly. There' are plenty of legitimate things that this government could be criticised on.
But I don't believe managing Covid is one of them.
An AM drive-by the Whanganui protester's upper Avenue marshaling point and oh dear, the whole gang were there.
The anti 1080 crew, the forced-birthers with their new placards, the avenue butt picker-uppers, a local nat party knob….LOL
Edit: @observer – and most were gawkers
How do these folk even manage to tie their own shoe laces? 🙄
QAnon Rally Fails to Revive JFK Jr. From the Dead
he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy.
'larious
Hard to fathom how they can live with the continual disappointment….but if a Warriors fan can…